Boosted by network, Big Ten reigns supreme in cash

May 15, 2013
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Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, shown here at a November 2012 press conference announcing the addition of Rutgers University to the Big Ten, was credited with $2.8 million in annual compensation in the conference's latest tax return, which was obtained by USA TODAY Sports. / The Star-Ledger, U.S. Presswire

by Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY Sports

The Big Ten Conference's financial supremacy was on display again Wednesday when the league's latest federal tax return reported record revenue and the largest single-year compensation figure ever for a conference commissioner.

The return also showed the league-owned Big Ten Network has progressed from start-up to overall profitability in less than five years.

The Big Ten's return showed the conference with more than $315 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.

The Big Ten, which increased its annual revenue by more than $50 million in 2012, had total revenue that was $42 million more than the Southeastern Conference reported for a fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2012.

The tax return, provided by the Big Ten Conference in response to a request from USA TODAY Sports, showed commissioner Jim Delany being credited with more than $2.8 million in compensation for the 2011 calendar year. (IRS rules require an individual's compensation to be reported based on a calendar year; an organization's revenue and expense data are reported by fiscal year.)

Delany's 2011 compensation -- which included a $1 million payment that deputy commissioner and treasurer Brad Traviolia described as a deferred payment and retention bonus â?? was more than $1.2 million above what the SEC reported paying commissioner Mike Slive for the same period. Slive's nearly $1.6 million for 2011 included a $550,000 bonus.

Slive is likely the only other commissioner to have topped $2 million in earnings for one year. He received more than $2.1 million in 2008, including a $1 million bonus.

Pacific-12 commissioner Larry Scott made nearly $1.9 million in salary in bonuses in 2010. That conference has not yet released its latest tax return.

The Big Ten's schools -- other than Nebraska, which was still not getting an equal share of revenues -- each received around $24.7 million from the conference in 2012.

To put that in perspective, just this one portion of Big Ten schools' athletics revenue in 2012 was greater than the total athletics revenue of more than half of the NCAA Division I public schools, according to USA Today Sports' recent analysis of the figures schools reported to the NCAA.

Part of the Big Ten's revenue increase came from the first annual profit share generated by the Big Ten Network, which the league owns almost equally with Fox. The conference's tax return shows the activation of a holding corporation whose purpose is to receive taxable revenue generated by the network, and that the conference netted about $11 million in 2012.

This means that during fiscal 2012, the conference and Fox finished covering the venture's start-up costs and began making money from the network, which launched in August 2007 as the first national conference-owned TV network geared around one conference. The network's profits seem almost certain to rise in the future. The conference also receives an annual rights fee from the network, Traviolia said.

The network's success is undoubtedly just part of the reason Delany is so highly compensated.

The Big Ten's new tax return shows the commissioner with:

$1,335,178 in base compensation, which is 42% more than the $939,972 he received in 2010.

The $1 million deferred/retention payment, $600,000 of which was reported as deferred but unpaid income on prior year's returns.

$435,000 in new deferred compensation that he accrued but was not paid in 2011.